The Rasputin Dagger

by Theresa Breslin

‘With you.’ My face went pink. ‘With all of you.’ I avoided Stefan’s eyes.

  Dr K smiled at me. ‘What do you think, Galena?’

  ‘For weeks now I have been nagging you to leave,’ she said. ‘I am sure the house is being watched, especially on clinic day, when any stranger can enter the shed in our back garden. I’ve told you to be selective of your patients.’

  ‘My patients are whoever turns up and needs medical aid.’

  Galena sniffed. ‘It’s risky for you to treat former Imperialists.’

  ‘May I remind you that you are a former Imperialist. Should I not treat you if you become unwell?’

  ‘I’m not a former Imperialist,’ she declared. ‘I am a present Imperialist. The Tsar had bad advisers. That is why things turned out the way they did.’ She lowered her voice. ‘The women in the bread queue say there is a force called the White Army who are going to rescue and reinstate him.’

  Stefan groaned.

  ‘Yekaterinburg was a safe haven for my good friend Ivan,’ said Dr K. ‘It has the advantage of being far away from this city, and Moscow. Perhaps we should consider Nina’s invitation? I’m sure doctors would find work in Siberia, and we might return when the political situation is more stable.’

  ‘Oh, yes!’ I said. ‘Please do come.’ An image came into my head of me showing Stefan the paddock and the horses, the orchard and the meadows of spring flowers.

  ‘It will give us a rest, and Nina can ensure that this crooked lawyer has registered the title deeds of the house in her name.’ Dr K looked again at Galena and Stefan. ‘Does everyone agree?’

  ‘I do,’ said Galena. ‘Anything to get you to a safer place.’

  ‘Stefan?’ Dr K asked.

  Stefan was looking into the middle distance and Dr K had to repeat his name before he refocused his attention and replied, ‘Siberia sounds like a safe haven.’

  Galena put her hand over his where it lay on the table. ‘We will come back, I promise. And things will be the same again.’

  Stefan got up. He paused at the door to look around the room before saying, ‘Things will never be the same again.’

  It could be weeks before we obtained train tickets, but before we left the city there was something I had to do.

  I took the carved casket from my travel bag but I did not open it. Dr K was right. The dagger was dangerous. Not just because of its great value but because of the aura that surrounded it. Every time I looked upon it or touched it, my mind was infested with fanciful thoughts. Someone like Viktor Ilyich should never be given charge of it. If the dagger was gone, then it could bring no harm to anyone.

  The next morning I volunteered to queue for our bread. On my way there I walked by the Neva. There was a strong current. The water, although sluggish with snow, was moving purposefully downstream. I leaned over and let the casket slide from my hand.

  I experienced a deep sense of release as I dropped it into the inky water. Now it was under the ice but, unlike Rasputin, this dagger would not rise to the surface.

  Chapter 45

  The Bolshevik Party made a pronouncement that any people or organizations who disagreed with their views were enemies of the State.

  Recognized opposition parties were branded, along with Tsarist sympathizers, as ‘Counter-Revolutionaries’. Lenin accused them of subversion and treason, destroyed their printing presses and suspended the rule of law. The Bolsheviks’ special armed police force, the Cheka, placed agents and informers inside academic institutions, offices and factories. Protests were ruthlessly quashed by the Red Guard. A new type of fear stalked the streets – that of suspicion and intimidation. It was clear that Lenin did not fully trust the Petrograd Soviets, for the city had a reputation for free-thinking and independence of spirit. He decided that the Russian capital was now to be Moscow; a Soviet Government would be set up within the Kremlin.

  ‘Not a government,’ said Stefan. ‘A dictatorship.’

  We took turns to wait in day-long queues at the railway station to buy tickets. It took over a week to secure the four that we needed. But, before we could rejoice at our achievement, the regime issued a directive to say that special passes were needed to travel by train – special passes that could only be issued by personal application at party headquarters. I remembered Papa’s friend, the stationmaster, saying that whoever seized control of the railway system would hold all the winning cards.

  ‘I refuse to talk to them,’ said Stefan.

  ‘It would be unwise for any of us to do that,’ said Dr K. ‘We would be subjected to investigation.’

  ‘I will write to Dmitri, our family steward,’ I said, ‘and ask him to speak to the stationmaster at Yekaterinburg.’

  The thaw had set in, and I began to dream of Siberia in the springtime. I promised them that they would love my village, and I described my house with the paddock and the orchard, and the meadows full of wild flowers. Talking about this was an antidote to what was happening in the city and elsewhere. A resistance organized by Alexander Kerensky crumbled and he had to flee the country. The Bolsheviks then orchestrated a purge of what they termed ‘terrorist elements’ – in reality, it was aimed at rooting out dissenters. Workers and soldiers, students and professors, ordinary housewives, the old and the young were rounded up – to disappear in the torture cells or be executed.

  One clinic morning, when we were drinking our early morning tea, Galena came from the front door with a slip of paper in her hand. Her face white, she stood at the entrance to the kitchen.

  ‘What’s amiss with you?’ Dr K was on his feet so fast that his chair overturned. ‘Come, lean on me.’ He helped Galena sit down.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Stefan too jumped up from his stool.

  ‘This was in our letterbox. It must have been put there during the night.’ Galena placed the note on the table:

  ‘What?’ Dr K forced a laugh as Galena read it out in a shaking voice. ‘Is that what’s alarming you? Put it in the stove. Pay no heed to anonymous letters.’

  ‘I wouldn’t laugh about the Cheka,’ Stefan said. ‘The Bolshevik Secret Police are building a worse reputation than the Okhrana. They are an execution squad in all but name.’

  We were sitting close enough that I could see the paper and a shiver passed through me. ‘It is the same handwriting as the note which warned me to leave the Alexander Palace.’

  ‘And it was a timely warning,’ said Galena, her voice stronger now that she’d got over her initial fright. ‘If Nina had not left when she did, she might have been detained under house arrest with the Imperial Family.’

  ‘Did the coachman tell you who wrote the note?’ Stefan asked me.

  ‘He would say nothing except that it must be burned. I supposed he’d been bribed, but I also think he was frightened of whoever had handed him the message.’

  ‘Let us follow both the example of the coachman and the last instruction in this letter.’ Dr K lifted the piece of paper and dropped it into the stove.

  ‘You should think seriously about what was written in that note,’ said Galena. ‘If not for our sakes, then for theirs.’ She indicated Stefan and me.

  ‘My dear Galena’ – Dr K gazed at her with an expression of thoughtful admiration – ‘in all our years together you have never given me bad advice.’ He stood up and walked to the kitchen window. ‘There is already a queue of patients waiting to be seen.’ He sighed heavily. ‘I think we should open as usual so as not to attract attention. Immediately afterwards, I will depart from the house without carrying any luggage, and walk to the City Hospital. I’ll go in but leave by a side door and find somewhere to stay.’ He held up his hand to forestall any interruption. ‘I won’t say where. That means if you are questioned you can tell them nothing. I’ll find a way of contacting you so that when Nina receives our railway passes we can set out for Yekaterinburg.’

  Galena’s shoulders slumped in relief but she rallied enough to say, ‘My dear Dr K, in all the years I’ve given you good advice, you have
rarely taken it. I am glad that you’re making an exception today.’

  When we’d finished the clinic session, Stefan went into the kitchen to help Galena set out our breakfast. Dr K sat down to write up his notes while I wiped the work surfaces and benches.

  He picked up his pen. ‘It’s strange to think that it might be months before I sit here—’

  He was interrupted by the shed door opening. Two men in the uniform of the new Bolshevik Secret Police stood there.

  ‘Is this the clinic of the surgeon who works at the City Hospital, the man known as Dr K?’

  I drew in my breath, but Dr K answered them before I could speak. ‘Come in, please’ – he stood up to greet them – ‘and tell me what is wrong with you.’

  ‘There is nothing wrong with us.’ One of the men walked into the shed. ‘I am a commissar of the Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, and I say it is you who are doing wrong here.’

  ‘In what way?’ Dr K put down his pen and faced the Cheka officer.

  ‘Has this clinic been officially registered with the Petrograd Soviet Council?’

  ‘I don’t believe it has,’ Dr K replied. ‘I was unaware that it was necessary.’

  ‘Being unaware does not absolve you of responsibility.’

  ‘That is true. I am closing up now and will go to the Council offices immediately and register it.’

  Dr K’s answer did not satisfy this policeman. He picked up some strips of bandages. ‘Did you steal these from the City Hospital where you work?’

  ‘They were not stolen. We make them ourselves from the fabric of our own bedsheets.’

  The Cheka commissar dropped the bandages and opened a drawer which contained a pair of scissors and some cotton wool. ‘You have supplies here which could be better used elsewhere.’

  ‘They are kept for the poorest who cannot afford doctors’ bills,’ Dr K explained.

  ‘It is for us to decide who receives aid, not you. There might be more deserving cases than the ones you choose to treat.’

  ‘We treat everyone. This clinic has always been open to everyone.’

  ‘And what does that mean, exactly … “open to everyone”?’

  ‘It means that anyone who is unwell or requires medical aid, but cannot afford the fee, may come here and I will attend to them.’

  ‘Anyone at all?’

  Dr K waited a moment and then he said, ‘Yes. Anyone at all.’

  ‘So if a former Grand Duke or Duchess or some other enemy of the State came here, then you would help them?’

  Dr K said nothing.

  ‘I have asked you a question.’ The commissar pulled his handgun from its holster. ‘Answer me at once!’

  ‘Doctors take an ancient oath to help those in need.’ Dr K spoke carefully. ‘We ask patients about their symptoms, not their politics.’

  ‘That sounds like treason to me,’ said the policeman who was guarding the door. ‘Which makes you a traitor.’

  ‘Traitors get a bullet to the body.’ And without saying anything further the Cheka commissar raised his weapon – and shot Dr K in the chest!

  The two policemen exchanged a look and a nod, and then left the shed and the garden. I watched in shock and horror as Dr K gave a dreadful moan and crumpled to the floor. He tried to get up but failed.

  ‘Stefan!’ I screamed. ‘Stefan! Help. Stefan! Stefan!’

  Galena came running from the kitchen, Stefan overtaking her on the path.

  We carried Dr K into the house and laid him on his bed in his study. His shirt was soaking red.

  ‘Galena! Fetch his medical bag!’ Stefan cried.

  ‘Don’t go.’ Dr K reached out and clasped at Galena’s apron. ‘There is no point. I recognize arterial blood when I see it. Stay here and see me through this.’

  ‘Let Stefan try to stem the flow,’ she said.

  ‘Woman, will you not even obey this last order that I give you,’ he said.

  ‘Konstantin! Konstantin!’ Galena lamented as she knelt down beside him. ‘Time and again I told you that your recklessness would lead to ruin.’

  ‘Hush, hush.’ He brushed her cheek with his hand. ‘I am not worth your grief. One last favour I ask. Be strong for the children and it will make my passing the easier.’

  ‘I will.’ She took his fingertips to her lips. ‘I will.’

  Dr K switched his gaze to Stefan and me. ‘I’ve never told anyone before, but I asked this woman to marry me. Every day for a year I proposed, and she refused. Said that the daughter of a washerwoman could not marry a surgeon. Can you believe it?’

  I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak, for my eyes were aching with unshed tears.

  ‘But she agreed to be my housekeeper. That way she could scold me perpetually as any wife might do. And I had her company more than any husband.’ He coughed and a great clot of blood landed on the coverlet.

  ‘Messy to the end,’ said Galena.

  ‘To the end,’ the good doctor murmured, and he closed his eyes and breathed his last.

  Chapter 46

  They came from every corner of the city to attend the funeral of Dr Konstantin. The streets were lined with people. Workers removed their caps and women knelt in the snow as his cortege passed. The steel makers had sent a special carriage for his coffin to rest on. They did not forget that as a young, newly qualified doctor he’d gone into the foundry to care for the men burned when a vat of molten metal had exploded.

  Everyone had a story to tell.

  ‘My son’s leg was broken. The other doctors wanted to amputate from the hip. He’d never have had any chance of work. But Dr K splinted it and found him a hospital bed while the bones healed.’

  ‘I was dying from blood poisoning. I couldn’t afford treatment. He found the abscess and lanced it and I am well again.’

  ‘He gave us bread from his own table when we were starving.’

  Fyodor arrived at the house an hour before we were due to leave to express his condolences, and with an offer of a dozen Red Guards as an escort for the cortege.

  ‘Hypocrite!’ Stefan had followed Galena to answer the front bell. ‘That you dare to show your face at this door!’

  ‘Stefan—’ Fyodor began.

  ‘Betrayer of the Revolution!’ Stefan raged. And he cursed Fyodor and Lenin and their whole party as liars and cheats. ‘Where now the rousing speeches on the rights of the people to self-determination? What happened to the high-minded ideals of wise government?’

  Fyodor staggered back under this onslaught.

  Galena pushed Stefan inside the house and spoke to Fyodor. ‘We thank you for your offer,’ she said diplomatically. ‘Dr K was a pacifist, so a military escort of any type is not appropriate.’

  ‘Why don’t Fyodor’s men line up along this street and see us off?’ I suggested. ‘It would be a prudent move, and it means that they are not with us all the way.’

  Stefan was outraged. ‘The effrontery of Fyodor to come here and offer sympathy when he represents everything Dr K fought against!’

  ‘The Red Guard are not the Cheka,’ I said. ‘They are workers who became soldiers to fight for their human rights. Come, let us walk with Galena and give her the support she needs today.’

  I thought Galena would want to rest after the funeral, but when we returned to the house she took off her coat and put on her apron. ‘There are things we have to do,’ she said. ‘And they must be done right away.’

  ‘What kind of things?’ Stefan asked her.

  ‘You saw the turn-out for his funeral?’ she said. ‘I knew Konstantin was popular but I didn’t appreciate how much.’

  ‘I think he was more than popular,’ I said. ‘I think he was loved.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Galena. She had fetched a hessian sack from the scullery and was going about the kitchen popping small ornaments into it. ‘That made him dangerous, and now the memory of him is doubly dangerous.’ She hurried off into Dr’s K’s study and began selecting items to go into her sack. �
��Other than Lenin, the Bolsheviks do not want the people to love or respect any single person ever again. They fear the rise of a leader that the people would listen to and follow.’

  ‘Dr K is dead,’ said Stefan with a break in his voice.

  ‘So they cannot allow him to become a martyr. At the graveside I heard murmurings against his murderers. The Cheka will have heard them too. They will ransack this house to try to find anything to incriminate him as a traitor and justify his death as a valid execution. And they’ll confiscate everything of any value so that we are left destitute and powerless. Here’ – she shoved the sack at Stefan – ‘dig a hole in the garden and bury this stuff. We can retrieve it at a later date. I dare not hide too much in case they suspect what I’ve done and search more thoroughly.’

  Stefan stood holding the sack. ‘Do you really think this is necessary?’

  ‘I do,’ said Galena. ‘And so did Konstantin, for I am following the instructions he gave me in the event of anything happening to him. Nina and I will search through his papers and burn what we think could be misinterpreted as actions against the State.’

  Galena went and sat at Dr K’s desk and picked up a sheaf of papers. ‘He did treat people of all classes,’ she said. ‘We must destroy the files of any of the nobility or members of the Duma or the Provisional Government. Go!’ she said to Stefan. ‘Hurry! They will strike shortly, while they think we are in mourning and unprepared for their visit.’

  As soon as Stefan left the room Galena stood up. ‘Sit here, Nina’ – she indicated the doctor’s chair – ‘and check the paperwork. It is my secret and a source of shame to me that I can neither read nor write well enough to perform this task.’

  We worked into the evening to sort the house and Dr K’s study to Galena’s satisfaction. One item of interest which I did find I neither returned to the files nor gave up to be burned. Instead, I folded the paper and slipped it into the pocket of my skirt so that I might study it later.

  Scarcely had we sat down to eat when Stefan pushed his plate away from him and got up. ‘Please excuse me. I find I am not hungry.’